The Explor­ers pro­gram, a coed­u­ca­tion­al affil­i­ate of the Boy Scouts of Amer­i­ca that began 60 years ago, is train­ing thou­sands of young peo­ple in skills used to con­front ter­ror­ism, ille­gal immi­gra­tion and esca­lat­ing bor­der vio­lence — an intense ratch­et­ing up of one of the group’s long­time mis­sions to pre­pare youths for more tra­di­tion­al jobs as police offi­cers and fire­fight­ers.

“This is about being a true-blooded Amer­i­can guy and girl,” said A. J. Lowen­thal, a sheriff’s deputy here in Impe­ri­al Coun­ty, whose life clock, he says, is set around the Explor­ers events he helps run. “It fits right in with the hon­or and brav­ery of the Boy Scouts.”

The train­ing, which lead­ers say is not intend­ed to be applied out­side the sim­u­lat­ed Explor­er set­ting, can involve chas­ing down ille­gal bor­der crossers as well as more dan­ger­ous sit­u­a­tions that include fac­ing down ter­ror­ists and tak­ing out “active shoot­ers,” like those who bring gun­fire and death to col­lege cam­pus­es. In a sim­u­la­tion here of a raid on a mar­i­jua­na field, sev­er­al Explor­ers were instruct­ed on how to qui­et an obstreper­ous look­out.

“Put him on his face and put a knee in his back,” a Bor­der Patrol agent explained. “I guar­an­tee that he’ll shut up.”